North Carolina rapper Petey Pablo has been sentenced to nearly three years of prison after he was charged with possession of a stolen firearm nearly a year ago. The rapper was arrested when he attempted to board a flight to Los Angeles at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina and faced a potential sentence of 10 years according to the SacBee.

Pablo pleaded guilty to the charge at the U.S. District Court in New Bern where he was slapped with a reduced sentence of 35 months in a deal struck with prosecutors. Last week, Pablo came across as remorseful in an interview but was confident in his case and seemed to hint at his innocence saying, “In the end, the truth always comes to the light.”

The rapper was apprehended when he put the 9mm firearm through the airport’s X-Ray machine, and claimed that he had forgotten to take the weapon out of his carry-on luggage. Police alleged that the gun was stolen and charged Petey Pablo with carrying a concealed weapon on top of the possession charge. He secured release on a $50, 000 bond within an hour of appearing before a Wake County magistrate.

The jail time won’t be Pablo’s first experience in prison after he was convicted of armed robbery in 1993 and served five years of a potential 14 year sentence. Upon his 1998 release, he moved to New York where he was discovered by Jive Records while rapping in a bathroom.

Pablo had plans to work with J. Cole on a collaborative project but with Pablo’s third album, ‘A&R: Anticipated Recordings,’ lacking an official release date on top of the obstacle of the recent sentence, it could be some time before the two work together.